Air-to-air combat is the engagement of flying machines in warfare in which one or more aircraft tries to destroy one or more other aircraft. The Korean War saw the greatest amount of air-to-air combat since World War II. During the war the United States claimed to have shot down around 700 fighters. After the war the USAF reviewed its figures in an investigation code-named Sabre Measure Charlie and downgraded the kill ratio of the North American F-86 Sabre against the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 by half from 14:1 to 7:1. One of the factors inflating US numbers was that most dogfights took place over enemy-controlled area. The only way to confirm kills was through gun camera photography. USAF pilots were credited with a kill if the gun camera showed their guns striking the enemy aircraft even if no one actually saw it go down. However, Soviet kill claims were also highly exaggerated, based upon inherent flaws in their film grading procedures. For instance, the S-13 gun camera was not aligned with either the gunsight or either cannons’ ballistics. It ran only while the firing buttons were depressed. Film graders commonly included unit commanders and political commisars who would confirm a “kill”—sometimes even if one had not been claimed by a pilot—when the camera’s crosshairs touched the target for two movie frames. During the first 16 months of combat Soviet V-VS units claimed 218 F-86s destroyed when only 36 (35 to the two elite IADs and one to the 50th IAD) had been lost. This results in a 600 per cent inflation rate in victory credits over actual Sabres destroyed. However, these figures are complicated by the fact that the Americans routinely attributed combat losses to landing accidents and other causes.
The Vietnam War saw a move away from cannon fire to air-to-air missiles. Although US forces maintained air supremacy throughout the war, there were still occasional dogfights and US and North Vietnamese aces. The North Vietnamese side claimed the Vietnam People’s Air Force had 17 aces throughout the war, including Nguyen Van Coc, who is also the top ace of Vietnam War with 9 kills: seven acknowledged by the United States Air Force.
During the 1947 conflict over Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Air Force did not engage the Pakistan Air Force in air-to-air combat; however, it did provide effective transport and close air support to the Indian troops. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was the first time the Indian Air Force actively engaged an enemy air force. By the time the conflict had ended, India lost between 65 and 75 aircraft and Pakistan lost 20 aircraft. The Indian Air Force lost 45 aircraft during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 and the Pakistani Air Force lost 75 aircraft.
During the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–88, there were nearly 1,000 air-to-air engagements between Iran and Iraq, including the only known instances of helicopters dogfighting and shooting down other helicopters. The Falklands War of 1982 witnessed air combat between Argentine and British military aircraft. The Falkland Islands’ runways were short and thus unable to support fighter jets, forcing Argentina to launch fighters from the mainland, which had an adverse effect on their loiter time. The Argentine forces lost 23 aircraft in air-to-air combat, out of a total of 134 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters lost during the conflict. During the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War 33 of Iraq’s 750 fixed wing aircraft were claimed as downed (23 were confirmed), compared to 14 coalition aircraft claimed as downed (4 losses are confirmed, one F/A-18 Hornet and three UAVs).
Aircraft lost to air-to-air combat
| Conflict | Air Force | Aircraft lost to air-to-air combat | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| US incursions into Yugoslav airspace (1946) |  United States Air Force |
2 | |
| Indonesian National Revolution |  Royal Indian Air Force |
2 | |
| Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949) |  Royal Air Force |
5 | |
 Israeli Air Force |
7 (Western claim); 0-1 (Israeli claim) | ||
 Egypt Air Force |
15 | ||
 Syrian Air Force |
2 | ||
| Korean War (1950–1953) |  PLAAF |
379 (Chinese claim); 750 PLAAF & NKAF (US claim) | |
 North Korean Air Force |
750 PLAAF & NKAF (US claim) | ||
| US Aircraft |
146 (US claim) | ||
 UN Coalition Aircraft |
197 (Soviet claim), 139 (UN claim) | ||
 South Korean Air Force |
135 | ||
| US incursions into Soviet airspace (1950–1970) | US Aircraft |
16 | |
 Soviet Air Defence Forces |
3 | ||
| Catalina affair |  Swedish Air Force |
2 | |
| Avro Lincoln shoot down incident | Royal Air Force |
1 | |
| Air battle over Merklín | USAFE |
1 | |
| Bombing of Plaza de Mayo (1955) |  Argentine Naval Aviation |
1 | |
| Suez Crisis (1956) | Egyptian Air Force |
7–9 | |
| Israeli Air Force |
1 | ||
| Secret electronic surveillance missions | US Navy |
2 | |
| Second Taiwan Strait Crisis | PLAAF |
32 (ROC claim); 5 (PRC claim) | |
 ROCAF |
14 (PRC claim); 3 (ROC claim) | ||
| Vietnam War (1959–1975) |  Vietnam Air Force |
131 (North Vietnam claim); 195 (US claim) | |
| US Aircraft |
128 (US Claim), 266 (North Vietnam claim) | ||
 Republic of Vietnam Air Force |
72 | ||
| Taiwanese incursion into Burma airspace | ROCAF |
1 | |
| Dutch–Indonesian Conflict |  Indonesian Air Force |
1 | |
| Project Dark Gene (1960–79) | Soviet Air Force |
1 | |
 Imperial Iranian Air Force |
6 | ||
| Bay of Pigs Invasion |  Brigade 2506 |
10 (Confirmed) | |
| Six-Day War (1967) | Israeli Air Force |
12 (Israeli claim); 20 (ACIG claim) | |
Egypt Air Force Syrian Air Force Royal Jordanian Air Force |
64–72 | ||
| Indo-Pakistani Air War of 1965 |  Indian Air Force |
60-75 | |
 Pakistan Air Force |
20 | ||
| War of Attrition (1967-1970) | Egypt Air Force |
60 (Egyptian claim);113 (Israeli claim) | |
| Israeli Air Force |
4 (Israeli claim) | ||
| Football War |  Air Force of El Salvador |
3 | |
| Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 | Indian Air Force |
45 | |
| Pakistan Air Force |
75 | ||
| Turkish invasion of Cyprus |  Turkish Air Force |
1 (Greek claim) | |
| Yom Kippur War (1973) | Israeli Air Force |
5 (Israeli claim) | |
| Egypt Air Force Syrian Air Force |
277 (Israeli claim) | ||
| Libyan–Egyptian War (1977) |  Libyan Air Force |
4–5 | |
| Egyptian Air Force |
1 | ||
| Iranian and Soviet airspace incursions (1970s) | Imperial Iranian Army Aviation + IIAF |
2 + 3 | |
| Soviet Air Forces |
1 | ||
| Soviet–Afghan War |  Afghan National Army Air Corps |
8 | |
| Pakistan Air Force |
1 | ||
 Islamic Republic of Iran Army Aviation |
2 | ||
 Mojahedin |
4 | ||
| Nicaraguan Revolution |  Nicaraguan Air Force |
2 | |
| Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) |  Iraqi Aircraft |
234 (confirmed) | |
| Iranian Aircraft |
73 (confirmed) | ||
| Soviet Air Forces |
3 (Iranian claim); 0 (Soviet claim) | ||
| Syrian Air Force |
3 | ||
 Algerian Government Aircraft |
1 | ||
| Turkish Air Force |
1 | ||
| South African Border War |  South African Air Force |
1 | |
 National Air Force of Angola |
2 | ||
| US Freedom of Navigation operations near Libya (1980–1989) |  Libyan Air Force |
4 | |
| Salvadoran Civil War |  FMLN supply aircraft |
1 | |
| Falklands War | Argentine Naval Aviation/Argentine Air Force |
23 | |
| Army Air Corps |
1 | ||
| 1982 Lebanon War | Syrian Air Force |
82–86 (Israeli claim) | |
| Israeli Air Force |
1 (Israeli claim); 42 (Syrian claim); 3 (ACIG claim) | ||
| Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) | Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam | 1 | |
| Tanker War (1984–1988) | Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force |
1 (Iranian claim) 2 (Saudi claim) | |
| Persian Gulf War (1990–1991) | United States Navy |
4 (US claim); 12 (Iraqi claim) | |
| Royal Air force |
1 (Iraqi claim) | ||
 Italian Air Force |
1 (Iraqi claim) | ||
 Royal Saudi Air Force |
1 (Iraqi claim) | ||
 Iraqi Air Force |
23 (Iraqi claim); 44 (Coalition claim) | ||
| Iraqi no-fly zones enforcement | US Aircraft |
3 | |
| Iraqi Air Force |
5 | ||
| Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) | Italian Army |
1 | |
| 1992 Venezuelan coup d’état attempts |  Bolivarianos |
3 | |
| Operation Deny Flight |  Republika Srpska Air Force |
5 | |
| Cenepa War (1995) |  Ecuadorian Air Force |
1 (confirmed), 2 (Ecuadorian claim) | |
| Aegean dispute (1996) | Turkish Air Force |
1 | |
| Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000) |  Eritrean Air Force |
2–6 | |
 Ethiopian Air Force |
Up to 7 | ||
| Operation Allied Force |  Yugoslav Air Force |
5 + 1 heavily damaged, later destroyed on the ground | |
 NATO Air Force |
1 + 1 Tomahawk | ||
| Atlantique incident | Pakistan Navy |
1 | |
| 2001–02 India–Pakistan standoff | Indian Air Force |
1 IAI SearcherII drone | |
| Iran–Israel proxy conflict | Hezbollah UAVs | 2 | |
| 2008 Georgian spy plane shootdowns |  Georgian Air Force |
1 | |
| Iraq War (2003–2011) | Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force |
1 | |
| War in Afghanistan | United States Air Force |
1 | |
| Syrian Civil War | Syrian Air Force |
7 | |
 Russian Air Force |
2 | ||
| “Pro-Syria regime” forces | 2 | ||
| Iran–Israel proxy conflict | Iran |
1 | |
| War in Donbass |  Ukrainian Air Force |
1 (Ukrainian claim) | |
| Second Libyan Civil War | Turkish Air Force |
1 | |
| Second Yemeni Civil War |  Houthis |
4 (Arab Coalition claim) | |
| 2016 Turkish coup d’état attempt | Peace at Home Council |
2 | |
| Balochistan Conflict | Iran |
1 | |
| 2019 India–Pakistan standoff | Indian Air Force |
1 (Indian claim) 2 (Pakistani claim) | |
| Pakistani Air Force |
0 (Pakistani claim); 2 (1 aircraft and 1 drone as per Indian claim) | ||
| 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War |  Armenian Air Force |
1 (Armenian claim) | |
| 2021 Israel-Palestine conflict |  Hamas |
1 |